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Complete Listing
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Press Releases
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Company Offers Total Immersion in English, America
7/29/1999 (By MIKE MENDER – The Post Star – GLENS FALLS, NEW YORK)
Highlights: Saratoga Springs – Ask 13-year old Murodbek Parpiev what he liked best about his visit to America and you’d be surprised by his answer. Not the boat ride on Lake George. Not the trip to The Great Escape. Not even the chance to eat fast food and buy CDs at the mall. No, Murodbek’s favorite thing about the United States was the lightning bugs.
“I never saw them before,” he said.
Murodbek said they don’t have lightning bugs back home in Uzbekistan, an Eastern European country that was part of the former Soviet Union.
Murodbek and 12 other Uzbekistan nationals returned home earlier this week after spending a month of “total cultural immersion” in and around Saratoga Springs. The group’s host: English Connection, a Saratoga Springs company that offers intensive English instruction and cultural immersion to foreigners.
A firsthand encounter with a lightning bug is just one of the benefits of studying the English language and American Culture by being here.
“We offer the total experience,” said Joanne P. Kubricky, director of English Connection. “They eat, sleep, walk and talk America while they are here.”
The immersion is complete, Kubricky said. In addition to intensive classroom instruction, each student lives with a host family and participates in the day-to-day activities of the family. To round out their experience, students go on a series of excursions to local and regional points of interest that include cultural, recreational and educational venues.
“It’s the host family experience and the excursions,” Kubricky said, “that reinforce the reading, writing, listening an comprehension lessons.”
English Connection hosts between 200 and 250 students, educators and business people each year. Students spend four to eight hours a day in class and spend the rest of the time immersing themselves in the culture of the region, including trips to New York City, Montreal, Niagara Falls, Boston, Washington, D.C. and points of interest throughout the Capital Region. Sessions last between one and three months.
“What sets us apart from our competitors is that we really know our students,” Kubricky said. “Before they even get off the plane, we’ve learned their favorite food, their hobbies, the names of their family members. We want them to feel comfortable, so we take extra steps to get to know them. We take care of them, and that’s the bottom line.”
English Connection’s 15-35 full-time and part-time instructors all have master’s degrees in teaching English to those of other languages.
The group from Uzbekistan was typical of a student group and included 12 men and boys and one woman ranging in age from 13 to 49. Cost for each student was about $2,700 per month.
“We have all-inclusive packages, Kubricky said, One price includes everything from tuition and all instructional materials to housing and 3 meals per day. There are no hidden costs or surprises.”
English Connection has corporate clients who send their managers to her to learn English well enough to allow them to navigate the English-language-dominated business world. Cost for a corporate student could run as high has $10,000 a month, Kubricky said, depending on the type of program and accommodations the client chooses.
With English Connection thriving, the Board of Directors have set her sights on a new goal: branch offices on foreign soil. Kubricky said English Connection has met all regulatory requirements to open another foreign office in – where else – Italy.
English Connection is located at 480 Broadway. Call 581-1478 for more information or visit online at www.englishconnection.com.
480 Broadway P.O. Box 1054, Saratoga Springs, New York 12866
Work Phone: (518) 581-1478
e-mail: admissions@englishconnection.com
www: http://www.englishconnection.com
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